City Council: Save the lakefront, move the Lucas Museum

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

A rendering shows the proposed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, center, along the lakefront, with the Lakeside Center of McCormick Place to the left. The City Council is poised to vote on whether to approve construction of the museum there.

A rendering shows the proposed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, center, along the lakefront, with the Lakeside Center of McCormick Place to the left. The City Council is poised to vote on whether to approve construction of the museum there.

(Lucas Museum of Narrative Art)

Jerry Adelmann

Chicago aldermen: Say no to the Lucas Museum on the lakefront.

There is no reason to assume that the Chicago City Council won't vote Wednesday to approve the construction of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art on our lakefront. Every other approving agency has done so, to date with little debate and seemingly not even a twinge that this is a bad idea.

This is unfortunate since there are compelling reasons not to build it there, the most noteworthy being what any Chicagoan would tell you: It's Chicago's lakefront and we don't construct buildings there.

The argument to place the Lucas Museum south of Soldier Field is built on two half-truths; first, that what's there now is just surface parking, and second, that the location is part of the museum campus.

Parking lots are there now, but the truth is that Chicago has a well-established history when it comes to putting parking underground. Why would we now depart from this hard-fought aesthetic and half-century effort and introduce a new building on our lakefront to replace parking?

Second, new museums do not have a predetermined destiny to be on the museum campus. The relocation of Lake Shore Drive, which once isolated the three existing institutions, allowed them to be connected in a pedestrian-friendly, campuslike setting. The museum campus is not an indeterminate place with arbitrary boundaries extending south along the lakefront.

With the prospect of tearing down the Lakeside Center of McCormick Place to create 19 acres of park space, Chicago is on the verge of realizing its 100-year-old dream of a continuous, spacious, park-lined lakefront. This is the kind of vision that put Chicago on the map and the kind of vision we need today.

One by one the public bodies answerable to Mayor Rahm Emanuel are approving the city's de facto donation of Lake Michigan shoreline for the museum that billionaire George Lucas wants to build. The Chicago Park District, having negotiated a $10 fee for a 99-year lease, was the first to deliver for...

(Editorial Board)

There are countless options for the Lucas Museum other than on the lakefront. Neighborhoods across Chicago, including just west of Lake Shore Drive, would welcome its whimsy, art and economic engine. But there are no choices when it comes to our lakefront parks; we can't relocate the lake, and we should be resolute in our political will that we will not give away what we all value and what elected officials hold in the public trust.

What would it take for the Chicago City Council to vote for open space and reject the Lucas Museum on this site? Is it unreasonable for Chicagoans to expect that the council will deliberate thoughtfully and independently of the mayor and vote to protect our lakefront?